Want to open a restaurant?

JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald

Owner Michael Lutfy roasts peppers in a stone-lined brick oven at Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen. The ovens, which are used for 75 percent of the restaurant’s prep work, reach temperatures of up to 800 F.

By Karen Brucoli AnesiSpecial to the Herald

Thinking about leaving your day job to open Durango’s next dream restaurant?

Industry insiders suggest it will take more than just encouragement from friends and family who say you’re a great cook. Your skills as a butcher, a baker and a passionate plan-B maker also may be required. Add designer, food-cost estimator, investigator and project manager to the talents necessary for restaurant success.

First-time restaurant owners Michael and Birgitte Lutfy share an impressive skill-set and nearly a lifetime of experience in the retail food world, yet it took them years to find the right location and concept for their dream restaurant, Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen, 862 Main Ave., which Michael describes as a contemporary, new-American bistro with a Southwestern flair.

“We went to hundreds of restaurants, actually sat at the bars and measured the knee clearance,” he said of the homework the couple did in addition to interviewing chefs, bartenders and kitchen crews from all over the country.

Michael cut his teeth in the restaurant business as a 12-year-old dish washer, potato peeler and prep cook in his uncle’s restaurant in the Poconos, before rising through the culinary ranks.

Birgitte obtained a culinary degree from a Danish school where she specialized in charcuterie. She later managed a catering department in a high-end food store in Newport Beach, Calif. The two met over a cheese counter, Michael said, when he feigned ignorance about artisanal cheeses.

“I was savory. She was sweet,” Michael said of the instant romance.

Earlier this decade, the Lutfys spent 10 months a year travelling across America as cooks for the Indy car racing team owned by Michael Andretti. They were responsible for preparing gourmet fare for 80 staff members and up to 400 sponsor guests and executives on the weekend racing circuit.

The couple eventually moved to Durango, where they catered occasional events while on their quest to open a restaurant.

Both agreed that it was critical to find the right location to establish a solid concept that would be supported by locals.

With help from Fort Lewis College’s Small Business Development Center, the Lutfys developed a business plan. Template in hand, they compared numerous restaurant locations before settling on a site on Main Avenue within the downtown historic business zone.

“We walked away from so many deals,” Michael said. Patience, knowing costs down to the penny and due diligence were equally important, and it also made sense to have a building contractor, fire department officials and health inspectors do a walk through before signing a lease, he said.

Vicki Vandegrift, senior planner with the city of Durango, agrees it’s necessary to search with eyes wide open when looking to open a restaurant in Durango.

“Once you’ve found a location, find out if there are any issues or requirements specific to that location. Talk to officials about code enforcement,” Vandegrift said, noting that a walk-through also is useful.

For Chimayo, a stylishly appointed restaurant that specializes in all things oven roasted, reworking, redrafting and refining the details before opening the door was the name of the game.

Two $40,000 stone-fired ovens turn out 75 percent of the prep work, including the almost-daily roasting of seasonal vegetables. Richly flavored sauces and toasted herbs and cheeses figure prominently in Chimayo’s diverse menu of about 30 items.

Stone-fired pizza selections range from a classic margherita pizza to savory mushroom pies made with not-so-classic fontina and Taleggio cheeses. Green chiles are paired with rice for risotto cakes. Roasted chicken, salmon, steak or shrimp can be added to four salads that all boast a Southwestern flair.

“We refined our original restaurant concept to fit the space,” Michael Lutfy said, crediting the sleek design of the 37-foot-wide storefront to Birgitte Lutfy’s artistic eye and more than 1,000 hours of daily attention to detail, down to where each wall outlet was placed.

The restaurant’s theme of merging old classics with new trendy twists extends beyond the menu.

A pair of garage-door-style rolling windows bring the outdoors inside. With weather being so unpredictable, this practical alternative to a patio made design sense.

“I design from a functional standpoint. It doesn’t matter how good things look if they don’t work,” Birgitte said.

The Lutfys’ design also incorporates an open kitchen, an efficient route from ovens to dining room and a wireless, iPad-based POS system that records sales from plate to pantry.

“No two employees cross each other,” Michael said of the traffic flow that allows his staff to provide quick and efficient service.

“The POS system is the nerve center. It’s how a business like this works,” Birgitte said, describing how servers use hand-held devices that look like iPhones to record food orders, track inventory and process payments.

Linear angles are softened with curves that showcase a dramatic bar that extends three quarters deep into the spacious dining room. Historic maple wood flooring and tin ceilings contrast with exposed steel support beams.

During the early stages of construction, life-size cardboard cut-out design templates stood where booths eventually would be constructed.

Passion is what Mike Burns, regional president of Alpine Bank, notices when prospective restaurateurs come to him looking for financing.

“Location is important, capital matters, but the single most important thing is passion,” Burns said.

It’s required when one puts in up to 80 hours a week on the job.

Burns said that almost a million tourists make their way through Durango each year to ride the train and ski the mountains before seeking out a restaurant for a good meal.

“People are hungry and they’re tired when they return to town,” Burns said.

The failure rate of restaurants is no greater than the failure rate of any small business, Burns said, but “restaurants have lots of challenging, moving parts.”

Getting the bugs out before opening the door is important.

“Pretty much everyone will give you a chance, but you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” Burns said.

When former chef and restaurant owner Vince Ferraro entered Durango’s restaurant scene back in 1984, he describes it as “competitive, with only six to eight good restaurants.”

“Now there’s twice that many,” he said.

With partners, Ferraro owned Pronto’s Pizza and Pasta and later acquired Ariano’s, a fine-dining Italian restaurant that he sold after 10 years at the helm.

The retired chef, who now works as a meat cutter at PJ’s Gourmet Market, said he might return to a restaurant kitchen, but he wouldn’t own a restaurant again unless he owned the real estate with it.

Tim Turner, who opened Zia Taqueria in 2005, offered this advice to novice restaurant-owners: “Have your systems dialed in as best you can, so you’re not burning up revenues trying to create and implement systems on the fly.”

Focus then can shift to effective training and team building. Restaurateurs also must secure a food supply and establish pricing by running food cost evaluations through rigorous spreadsheets. It’s important to constantly challenge the numbers and have a system that allows for price changes, Turner said.

If he could flash back seven years, Turner said he’d look for more opportunities to grow greater quantities of the fresh, healthy, nutrient-dense food that is central to Zia Taqueria’s concept.

“Zia would have 10 greenhouses today. As it stands, we have three,” Turner said.

Running a restaurant is a long-haul proposition that requires reinvesting initial profits in the business, the team, and the community, Turner said.

“Don’t have large expectations for retaining earnings during the first 24 to 36 months,” he said.

Chimayo owners once worked Indy car circuit

If getting the show on the road for your family reunion or annual picnic in the woods seems like a daunting task, consider the responsibilities once shouldered by Michael and Birgitte Lutfy.From 2001 to 2006, the couple managed food service and corporate hospitality for the Michael Andretti Indy car racing team, an experience that fine-tuned the skills they would need to open their new Durango restaurant, Chimayo, six years later.For 17 weekends a year, from May to October, they set up temporary restaurant locations that served up to 1,200 meals, rain or shine.Their traveling system included a hospitality suite in a tractor-trailer fitted with a fold-out rear platform and a small kitchen equipped with a 10-burner double oven, a prep area and a six-foot grill. The left side of the trailer featured a large awning under which up to 100 people could sit at a time.A second triple-axle trailer was fitted with a refrigerated, commercial kitchen where they prepared pastries, salads and perishables. Up to 80 more people could sit under the awning that popped out from the side of the rig.Yet another trailer carried the furniture and utensils needed to feed the sizable crowd. That’s where they packed the propane tanks, tables, chairs, dishes, buffet service, forks, knives and, uh ... how about the can opener?Two days before the racing crew arrived onsite, the Lutfys were set up to receive deliveries from food suppliers, but they often had to jump in the Jeep to make a run to Walmart for last-minute items. Upon the arrival of the 80-member crew, breakfast was served at 6 a.m. Some days it was just scrambled eggs and ham, fruit, pastries and yogurt. On race day, they might have served smoked salmon hash with hollandaise, eggs Benedict or French toast strata. On the weekends, up to 250 hungry VIP guests started arriving around 8:30 a.m.By 11 a.m., crew members would start showing up at the tent for lunch. For the others, the Lutfys would pack food and transport it to the garage in a moment’s notice. On race day, they would serve a gourmet lunch to as many as 300 guests.Afternoons were spent shopping and prepping for the next day. No expense was spared to deliver fresh, healthy and, when possible, local ingredients.At each location, VIP guests often included corporate executives who expected to enjoy local specialties such as grouper, ropa vieja or mojo chicken in Miami or hand-crafted artisanal sausage and brats in Wisconsin. Smokehouse turkey, pork and sausage were the rule in Texas. On race days, the Lutfys prepared fresh fish, jumbo shrimp and crab, as well as grilled, marinated steaks or rack of lamb served with locally grown produce.On a typical day, Birgitte Lutfy baked 8 dozen assorted cookies and ran a 10-item salad and sandwich bar for lunch. Buffets always featured at least two hot entrees, two sides, pies, cakes, beverages and sometimes even ice cream.On the last weekend of August, the racing team would arrive in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, where the Lutfys attended special events at the Andretti family winery. Race stops in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto also were among their favorites. Other perks of the Lutfys’ racing adventure, which lasted for six seasons, included meeting and touring the kitchens of celebrity chefs who were friends of the Andrettis.“All in all, a great experience,” Michael Lutfy said.